Ruined, God of Carnage Among Plays Included in Best Plays of 2008-09

Lynn Nottage’s Ruined, Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage and Christopher Durang’s Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them are among the works that will be included in the annual Best Plays Theater Yearbook, the Best Plays of 2008-2009. The 2008-2009 volume of the book will mark the 90th edition in the series. It will be published by Limelight Editions in 2010.

Other plays that will be included in the book are Gina Gionfriddo’s Becky Shaw, Lee Hall and Elton John’s Billy Elliot, Sarah Kane’s Blasted, Tracy Scott Wilson’s The Good Negro, Neil LaBute’s reasons to be pretty, Moisés Kaufman’s 33 Variations and Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan.

Editor Jeffrey Eric Jenkins explains the inclusion of this latter play by saying “longtime observers of the Best Plays series may recall that for the 1996-97 through 1999-2000 seasons, under the previous editor, only six plays were honored in each edition and five of those were required to have won the major New York playwriting prizes (Tony Award, Pulitzer Prize, etc.). Therefore, many plays such as one of this year’s honorees, The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh, were never in the conversation. Beginning with the 2008-2009 season, plays that received their New York premieres during those four so-called ‘Major Award-Winners’ seasons, now may be considered for inclusion.”

In addition to the 10 New York premieres honored, Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell will be honored with a Special Citation for [title of show]. Each of the Best Plays of 2008-2009, including title, will be celebrated in an essay. Writers contributing to the forthcoming volume include: Awam Amkpa, Dan Bacalzo, Una Chaudhuri, Jill Dolen, Garrett Eisler, John Istel, Nelson Pressley, Christopher Rawson, Alisa Solomon, Michael Sommers, and Charles Wright.

For further information, visit www.bestplays.org.